Anyone have experience with the Linux version of Appletalk (netatalk)?
How
does it perform with both OS 9 & OS X systems? How does it compare to
MS's
implimentation? Is it noticably faster/slower?

I've used it on RedHat 7.* and RedHat 9, once with a client at a
distance and once with my local Mac several years later. Since I
haven't had experience with MS versions, I couldn't compare them, but
Appletalk worked transparently for the Mac User when I set it up for
him in 1991 or 1992 (OS 9 or early X).

Appletalk seems to be about as fast as any other distance (NFS) file
sharing I've tried, quicker than ssh with a NetBSD Sparc. It's a bit
of a fuss to set up on the Linux side, quite easy on the Mac under OS X.